Help Scout
Help Scout is a customer communications platform that provides a shared inbox, knowledge base, and live chat tools to help small businesses deliver person-to-person support at scale.
Stonly
Stonly is a versatile knowledge management platform that helps you create interactive step-by-step guides, troubleshooters, and help centers to provide personalized self-service support for your customers and employees.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Help Scout | Stonly |
|---|---|---|
| Website | helpscout.com | stonly.com |
| Pricing Model | Subscription | Subscription |
| Starting Price | $25/month | $199/month |
| FREE Trial | ✓ 15 days free trial | ✓ 14 days free trial |
| Free Plan | ✘ No free plan | ✘ No free plan |
| Product Demo | ✓ Request demo here | ✓ Request demo here |
| Deployment | ||
| Integrations | ||
| Target Users | ||
| Target Industries | ||
| Customer Count | 0 | 0 |
| Founded Year | 2011 | 2018 |
| Headquarters | Boston, USA | Paris, France |
Overview
Help Scout
Help Scout is a customer support platform designed to make your service feel personal rather than transactional. Unlike traditional help desks that use complex ticket numbers, you can manage customer conversations through a clean, email-like interface that keeps the focus on the person you are helping. You can organize team emails in shared inboxes, create a self-service help center, and engage visitors with live chat and proactive messaging.
The platform helps you eliminate duplicate work with collision detection and automates routine tasks using simple if-then workflows. You can also track team performance and customer satisfaction through built-in reporting dashboards. It is built primarily for growing small to mid-sized businesses that want to provide professional support without the clutter and complexity of enterprise-level service tools.
Stonly
Stonly helps you move away from static help articles by turning your documentation into interactive, step-by-step guides. Instead of forcing your customers to read through long walls of text, you can lead them through personalized paths based on their specific needs or technical skill level. This approach ensures they get exactly the right answer at the right time, whether they are troubleshooting a technical issue or learning a new feature.
You can embed these guides directly into your website, app, or help center to provide support exactly where your users are. The platform is designed for customer success teams, product managers, and HR professionals who want to reduce support tickets and improve user adoption. By offering a more engaging way to consume information, you can deflect common queries and empower your team to focus on more complex tasks.
Overview
Help Scout Features
- Shared Inboxes Manage all your customer emails in one collaborative space where your team can assign tasks and leave private notes.
- Knowledge Base Build a self-service help center so your customers can find answers instantly without needing to send an email.
- Beacon Live Chat Provide instant support through live chat or suggest relevant help articles directly on your website or inside your app.
- Workflow Automation Create automated rules to categorize conversations, assign tickets to specific experts, and send bulk replies to common questions.
- Collision Detection See exactly who is viewing or replying to a conversation in real-time to prevent sending duplicate responses to customers.
- Customer Profiles View previous conversations and customer data alongside every message so you always have the full context before replying.
Stonly Features
- Interactive Step Guides. Build branching paths that let your users choose their own journey based on their specific problems or goals.
- In-App Widgets. Place your help guides directly inside your product so users can find answers without leaving their current page.
- Smart Search. Provide a powerful search bar that surfaces relevant interactive guides and articles instantly to reduce support friction.
- No-Code Editor. Create and update complex troubleshooting flows using a simple visual interface that requires zero technical or coding skills.
- Version Control. Manage different versions of your content and schedule updates to ensure your documentation always matches your latest product.
- Advanced Analytics. Track where users drop off in your guides so you can identify and fix confusing steps in your documentation.
Pricing Comparison
Help Scout Pricing
- 2 Shared Inboxes
- 1 Knowledge Base
- Live chat and messaging
- Automated workflows
- 60+ integrations
- API access
- Everything in Standard, plus:
- 5 Shared Inboxes
- 2 Knowledge Bases
- Advanced permissions
- Custom fields
- Teams and tagging
Stonly Pricing
- Up to 3,000 monthly triggers
- 3 admin seats included
- Full interactive guide builder
- Knowledge base hosting
- Standard integrations
- Email support
- Everything in Starter, plus:
- Up to 10,000 monthly triggers
- 5 admin seats included
- Advanced analytics and reporting
- Multi-language support
- Priority customer support
Pros & Cons
Help Scout
Pros
- Clean interface feels like familiar personal email
- Easy setup requires very little technical knowledge
- Excellent internal collaboration tools like private notes
- Highly responsive and helpful customer support team
Cons
- Reporting filters can feel limited for complex needs
- No free-forever tier for very small startups
- Mobile app lacks some desktop administrative features
Stonly
Pros
- Interactive branching paths significantly reduce support ticket volume
- Easy to build complex guides without needing developers
- Clean and modern interface for both creators and end-users
- Flexible embedding options work across web and mobile apps
Cons
- Starting price point is high for very small startups
- Initial setup of complex branching logic takes time
- Limited customization options for the widget's CSS